Ahmed Hammuda – Islam21chttps://www.islam21c.com
Articulating Islam in the 21st CenturyThu, 05 Sep 2019 18:45:30 +0000en-GB
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1 147071544The last of his sons but the first to follow. Who was Abdullah Morsi?https://www.islam21c.com/politics/africa/the-last-of-his-sons-but-the-first-to-follow-who-was-abdullah-morsi/
https://www.islam21c.com/politics/africa/the-last-of-his-sons-but-the-first-to-follow-who-was-abdullah-morsi/#respondThu, 05 Sep 2019 18:38:02 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=48825“My heart was buried the day you were buried, my father. By Allāh, my heart will not be cured, nor will my broken soul be mended, nor will my sadness depart until I join you on your path and way. I no longer desire this life.”

]]>On the 4th of September, the sad news emerged that Abdullah Morsi, the son of late President Mohammed Morsi (raḥimahu Allāh), died of a ‘sudden’ heart attack. Abdullah Morsi, 24, returned to Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) after a life full of arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and the enduring pain of losing his father.

The young, brave man was the youngest of Morsi’s five children. He was known as his family’s spokesperson and the unyielding supporter of his father’s legitimacy until his very last days.

According to Anadolu Agency, Morsi’s second son, Ahmed, reported that his brother Abdullah was driving his car when he suddenly had spasms. After his immediate hospitalisation, doctors at the Al Waha Hospital in Giza, south of Cairo, failed to restart his heart, and Allāh’s decree was faster.

The pain is unfathomable. Abdullah Morsi was a very nice person on so many levels. To die of a heart attack in his mid twenties is unfathomable. The injustice that Morsi’s family is enduring is unfathomable. He was so sweet and kind! RIP Abdullah!

After years of subjugation, Abdullah’s death will no doubt add another layer of pain to a family frequenting jails, graveyards, and court hearings. After his silent assassination through torture and medical neglect, the deposed President Mohammad Morsi died on the 17th of June 2019.

In reaction to the news, Moataz Matar, an Egyptian revolutionary journalist from the Al-Sharq television channel, said:

“The youngest of Morsi’s sons has died. May Allāh accept him amongst the righteous and firmly tie the heart of his mother, siblings, and loved ones. ‘Be patient, family of Morsi, the appointment is Paradise.’ And we say nothing except what pleases Allāh: ‘to Him we belong and to Him we shall return.’”[1]

The family’s spokesperson

Abdullah was renowned as his family’s ‘spokesperson’ and advocate of their just cause. His pen would always defiantly challenge the despotic regime, and he would never fail to represent his father, even during his time in secret detention. Abdullah wrote ‘The wonders we saw during our father’s Janazah’, published on Islam21c on the 25th of June, 2019, sourced from one of his several brave social media posts.[2] Abdullah said:

“My heart was buried the day you were buried, my father. By Allāh, my heart will not be cured, nor will my broken soul be mended, nor will my sadness depart until I join you on your path and way. I no longer desire this life.”[3]

Abdullah often frequented Egypt’s jails since his father was illegally overthrown and then detained under the all-too-common sham accusations of the coup’s critics. Abdullah had even been accused and later acquitted of drug abuse, a case involving allegations that legal observers said were fabricated.

As an outspoken critic of the Egyptian regime, Abdullah had been imprisoned on several occasions in the past few years. In 2014, Abdullah was sentenced to one year in jail, before being released in 2015. He was then arrested again in 2018, this time for ironically ‘spreading false news and statements’. Later in 2018, he was arrested for a number of accusations, including ‘being a member of a terrorist organisation and inciting towards violence’, in reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Amongst President Morsi’s sons, Abdullah became the most vocal critic of Egypt’s illegal authorities after the arrest of his eldest brother, Osama Morsi. Abdullah would irrevocably refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the coup regime by defiantly affirming the presidential legitimacy of his father, raḥimahu Allāhu.

In response to the news, Abdullah al-Mullah, a prominent Qatari political activist and business man, tweeted:

“Just two months ago he was supplicating to be gathered with his father in Jannah and on his path. And today Allāh takes him. We ask Allāh to answer his supplication and to gather him with his father in the Highest Firdous, with the prophets, truthful ones, martyrs, and the righteous.”[4]

A pained but patient family

After the 2011-2012 Egyptian parliamentary and presidential elections, millions of Egyptians anticipated that their nation would embark on a new democratic journey of recovery, reform, and freedom from decades of absolutism. However, their expectations were almost immediately trumped by Egypt’s military deep-state augmented by its neighbouring petrol-rich monarchies.

Morsi’s family, in particular, went from one trial to the next. President Morsi’s enduring and patient wife, Najlaa Mahmoud, had rejected the title of ‘First Lady’, instead preferring to be called ‘First Servant’ or ‘Umm Ahmed’. Her patience and perseverance were evident through her actions and those of her children. In early August 2019, Abdullah Morsi tweeted about his mother:

“She taught me and brought me up upon certainty that this world is a place of fatigue and tribulation for the sake of the hereafter, the home of reward, eternity, and bliss. May Allāhbe pleased with you, please you, strengthen you, and preserve you, mother. May He bless your life and your health and never allow us to see any evil touch you.” [5]

Najlaa Mahmoud and her five children would become the target of much of Egypt’s defamatory media machine. Mahmoud, her four sons, and her daughter would later be banned from visiting Morsi. During his six-year-long torturous detention, his family saw him only twice. The first time was during his detention in Turra Prison in 2017, and the second in September 2018, not knowing then that it would be their last visit.

In reaction to the news, Ahmed al-Baqry, the ex-Vice President of the Student Union of Egypt, said:

“May Allāh strengthen your heart, dear mother. You lost your husband and youngest son in less than three months. Your eldest has been detained for three years … your family have endured what most cannot.”[6]

Abdullah and his father have now passed whilst Osama, the eldest of President Morsi’s sons, has remained trapped in Egypt’s cells since December 2016. It is not expected that he will be allowed to bid farewell to, nor pray the Janāzah over, his deceased brother, just as he was prevented from seeing his father for the entirety of his time in jail.

With the passing of Abdullah, many are expecting the voice of Morsi’s family to be completely silenced. With the passing of their spokesperson, the formidable family moves into a new phase of tribulation, one with dependence on Allāh and patience awaiting His promise. Either a near victory they are bound to see, or if not, in shā Allāh, an everlasting abode in the presence of Allāh.

“Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, “When is the help of Allāh?” Unquestionably, the help of Allāh is near.”[7]

May Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) have mercy on Abdullah Morsi, accept him as a martyr, shower him with His mercy, and gather him with his father in the highest abode in Jannat al-Firdous. Āmīn.

]]>August 29th 2019 marks 53 years since Sayyid Qutb, the great Egyptian Muslim thinker, was hanged by the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Sayyid Qutb was born on October 9th 1906 in the Egyptian town of Musha. He memorised the Qur’ān at the age of 10, before relocating to Cairo and earning a degree in literature. Qutb devoted himself to authorship and literature, and from a young age would amass books and scholarly work and borrow from shopkeepers when he could not afford these books.

Later on, he was awarded a scholarship to study in the United States. There, after a period of self-reflection and inner reformation from previous convictions, he found peace and contentment with Islām. His experience in the United States created in his conscience a wholesome understanding of the manifestations of secularism and materialism, evident before his very eyes, and was of the strongest forces of influence in inclining his heart towards Islām.

Qutb argued that the Sharī’ah is the most comprehensive system and extends to all aspects of life. He believed that the Sharī’ah would bring every kind of benefit to humanity, including personal and social peace, and unlock the treasures of the universe. [1] Qutb believed the Sharī’ah to be the only adequate basis for political governance and powerfully refuted the then-popular ideology of Arab nationalism.

Qutb published his first major theoretical Islamic work in 1949, titled ‘Social Justice in Islām’. Other works of his include ‘In the Shade of the Qur’ān’, ‘Scenes of the Day of Judgement in the Qur’ān’, and ‘Milestones’. These books are read and benefited from by millions across the world to this day.

My Brother You Are Free Behind Bars

Having lived in the ‘Shade of the Qur’ān’, Qutb determinedly carried the weight of Islām and was prepared to pay whatever price in pursuit of seeing it prevail. His death spurred life into his message, one that until today troubles Islām’s adversaries, frustrates contemporary dictators, and exhausts pseudo-religious charlatans tasked with blowing life into despots.

The poem “My brother you are free behind bars,” written while Qutb was himself confined within a cell, has left an enormous impression on those who have embraced Qutb’s same altruistic concerns. The poem follows a figurative and paradoxical style and language. Qutb wrote it whilst destined for execution for his Da’wah, yet it imparts an overpowering sense of certainty in Allāh’s universal promises (Yaqīn) in its truest form. The words of the poem demonstrate Qutb’s insistence on persevering on his Manhaj (methodology or way), and imparts remarkable clarity of outlook towards the greatest purpose of existence: Allāh’s pleasure and Paradise. Thus, without intentional broadcast, the poem naturally spread across the four corners of the earth. Just one of many sung versions online has over 10 million views—this is, God willing, the natural result of sincerity, even if one’s message emerges from inside a dark, solitary cell.

A number of accounts exist as to why Qutb wrote these heart-wrenching words, particularly as he was not known for composing much poetry. One such account states that soon before his execution, Qutb was being dragged between other inmates, and one of them could not help but ecstatically greet Qutb. Touched, and knowing what that inmate would suffer as a result of his gesture, Qutb composed “My brother you are free behind bars.”

Another version mentions that Qutb sent some words of reassurance and encouragement to his colleague Muḥyī al-Din ‘Atiyah, a poet and one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was also incarcerated at the time, saying:

أخي أنت حر وراء السدود أخي أنت حر بتلك القيود

إذا كنت بالله مستعصما فماذا يضيرك كيد العبيد

أخي ستبيد جيوش الظـلام ويشرق في الكون فجر جديد

فأطلق لروحـك إشراقها تر الفجر يرمقنا من بعيد

“My brother you are free behind bars, my brother you are free despite your shackles … so long as you hold firmly to Allāh, how can the schemes of man harm you?

My brother, the soldiers of darkness will perish, and on earth will a new dawn prevail … so allow your soul to radiate brightly, and observe the dawn glancing at us from a distance.”

أخي قد أصابك سهم ذليل و غدرا رماك ذراعٌ كليل

ستُبترُ يوما فصبر جميل و لم يَدْمَ بعدُ عرينُ الأسود

أخي قد سرت من يديك الدماء أبت أن تُشلّ بقيد الإماء

سترفعُ قُربانها … للسماء مخضبة بدماء الخلود

“My brother you have been hit by a cowed arrow … and you have been struck treacherously by a fatigued arm.

One day it will be cut off so have beautiful patience … and the lions’ lairs will no longer bleed.

My brother, blood has gushed from your hands … refusing to be debilitated by the shackles of slaves.

It will be raised as a sacrifice to the heavens … smothered in eternal blood …”

When Qutb was admitted to the prison hospital for treatment, ‘Atiyah replied to him on the same rhythmical template as Qutb’s first address:

أخي هل تراك سئمت الكفاح وألقيت عن كاهليك السلاح؟

فمن للضحايا يواسي الجراح ويرفع رايتها من جديــد؟

“My brother, so it seems that you have become fatigued by your struggle … and thrown your armaments off your upper back …

Who have you left to console the injured … and to raise their flag all over again?”

Tomorrow I will swing a decimating axe … at the heads of snakes until they perish.

My brother, if your tears fall on me, and you drench my grave with them in fear …

Allow my remains to ignite your spirits … and proceed with them towards an illustrious past.

My brother, if we die, we will meet our loved ones. For Allāh’s paradise has been prepared for us …

And its birds are flapping their wings around us. How fortunate are we to deserve the Eternal Home?”

On receiving ‘Atiyah’s words, Qutb replied:

أخي إنني ما سئمت الكفــاح ولا أنا ألقيت عني الســلاح

وإن حاصرتني جيوش الظلام فإني على ثقة بالصـــباح

وإني على ثقة من طريقــي إلى الله رب السنا والشـروق

وإن عضني الشوك أو عافني فإني أمين لعهدي الوثــيق

“My brother, I have not become fatigued by my struggle … nor have I thrown down my armaments.

Even if I am besieged by the forces of darkness … I have full conviction that the morning will arrive.

And I am confident on my path … that path towards Allāh, the Lord of Light and Dawn.

Even if I am pierced or spared … I will remain entrusted and firm on my promise.”

أخي فامض لا تلتفت للوراء طريقك قد خضبته الدماء

و لا تلتفت ههنا أو هناك و لا تتطلع لغير السماء

“My brother, go ahead and do not look back … your path is one paved with blood.

Do no turn your head here nor there … and look towards nothing besides the heavens.”

سأثأرُ لكن لربٍ و دين و أمضي على سنتي في يقين

فإما إلى النصر فوق الأنام وإما إلى الله في الخالدين

“I will avenge, but for a Lord and a religion … and I will continue on my way with certainty.

Either I will be given victory over the rest of men … or to Allāh I return to His eternal abode.”[2]

Epitomising his Message and Struggle

Sayyid Qutb’s words epitomised his message: that the believer is a slave not to his whims, desires, wealth, nor the forces beneath Allāh, but to Allāh alone.

All besides Allāh’s true slaves are restrained by materialism and the pettiness of their carnal instincts. For Qutb and those who followed his determined path of reform and struggle against tyranny, physical chains were more meagre than the chains of lusts and desires that fettered their tormentors. And 53 years on, whilst the heritage and courage of Sayyid Qutb continues to be remembered, Abdel Nasser, who once enthralled the Egyptian masses, is only remembered as a tyrant, traitor, and coward.

Qutb’s poem recalls how the believer voyages towards Allāh, delighted by his destination, utterly dependent on Him and unaffected by the schemes of man. His concern is how to free his constricted brothers in humanity to the expanse of servitude to the Lord of humanity; from the subjugation of man-made systems to the justice of Islām.

The believer shatters within himself the idolism of godlessness, and overcomes his internal fear of tyrants and kings who have embraced the pharaonic slogan: “I do not show you except what I see”[3] and “If you take a god other than me, I will surely place you among those imprisoned.”[4] The believer is not afraid to embrace the response of Yusuf ʿalayhi al-Salām: “My Lord, prison is more to my liking than that to which they invite me.”[5]

Without doubt, Qutb’s contribution to Islamic thought, reformation, and literature was underpinned by revolutionary sentiment. Many used this to criticise and accuse him of being the inspirer of ‘Takfīri’ thought (excommunication). Much like other notable theologians of the past, his works have been either segmented, separated from the cataclysmic political repression he and masses of others were facing, exaggerated, or outright fabricated.

Qutb’s struggle and journey led him to conclude that Nasser’s government was just another proponent of anti-Islamic thought and secularism. Rather than become an advocator of divine authority, Qutb believed that it was just another power assisted by Western imperialism and driven by remnants of colonialism. Qutb settled on becoming one of the most important inspirers of Islamic political activism in Egypt and across the world, and one of the most famous theologians and thinkers in contemporary history.

Fourteen years before the hanging, Qutb delivered an address at a military parade attended by Abdel Nasser himself, celebrating the fall of the Egyptian monarchy. Addressing the audience, Qutb said:

“We cannot praise the revolution, because it has not achieved anything noteworthy. The ouster of the king was not the aim of the revolution, rather its aim is to return the country to Islām … I was prepared for imprisonment during the period of the [Egyptian] monarchy … and today I am also prepared for imprisonment and for other than imprisonment, even more than before.”

To this, Abdel Nasser replied: “My older brother Sayyid, by Allāh they will not reach you except on our lifeless bodies!”

Just 14 years later, what Qutb envisaged became a reality. He was executed at the hands of his ‘students’, the ‘Officers of the July Revolution’ against Egypt’s monarchy.

Qutb preferred death and torture to renouncing what he had declared. It is said that once he was asked: “Why were you so direct during your court hearings?” to which he replied: “Indirect insinuations (Tawriyah) are not permitted in matters of ‘Aqīdah, and it is not for a leader to take concessions.” Just before the execution rope was tied around Sayyid Qutb’s neck, some of Abdel Nasser’s junta tried to lure him to relinquish some of his positions. To this he replied:

“The finger that testifies that there is no God but Allāh in Tawḥīd during my prayer refuses to write a single word endorsing a tyrant.”[6]

May Allāh have mercy on Sayyid Qutb and those who have been killed in defiance of tyranny in Egypt and across the Muslim world. Ameen.

]]>Muslims around the world have hailed Qatar’s decision to withdraw its signature from a letter it signed last month alongside 37 countries expressing support for China’s repressive policies in East Turkestan. As many as two million ethnic Uyghurs are currently being held in detention centres akin to concentration camps.

According to human rights organisations, millions of Uyghurs (and other Muslim minorities mainly from the East Turkestan region) are being held in a vast network of concentration camps in China undergoing alleged political rehabilitation. Beijing says these “education centres” are necessary for countering religious extremism, but reports have emerged of physical and mental torture, children being forcibly separated from their parents, and many forced to denounce their religion and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party.

Despite widespread international condemnation, dozens of countries sent a joint letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressing their support for China. The letter, signed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, and several others,[1] absurdly commended “China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights” whilst ironically opposing the practice of “politicizing human rights issues.”[2]

Activists have criticised the manoeuvre by these countries as a political evasion of questions on their own human rights records, with the Gulf signatories responsible for the war on Yemen that has created the worst humanitarian catastrophe in recent history and the incarceration of dozens of scholars and activists. The Egyptian coup regime, on the other hand, is thought to have incarcerated no less than 60,000 pro-democracy activists in some of the world’s most dire and unliveable conditions, the same justification it has afforded China of countering “terrorism and extremism.”

Almost exactly a month after endorsing China’s repressive policies in East Turkestan, the UAE awarded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the highest civil decoration, the ‘Order of Zayed’.[3] The government led by the BJP, a Hindu extremist party, recently stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, revoking Article 370 that had given the Muslim region semi-autonomy.[4] Jammu and Kashmir is known as the most militarised zone in the world.[5]

In July, a 43-page report released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented grave human rights violations, including the killing of dozens of civilians at the hands of Indian troops and various forms of arbitrary detention.[6]

The UAE repealed its own values and Islamic ideals in favour of economic ties by inaugurating Hindu temples and Buddha idols on its main highways.[7] The ‘Order of Zayed’ award, handed to the ultra-nationalist Indian prime minister on the 24th of August, has been branded “a total disregard of human rights in favour of economic ties.”[8] Many have reasoned that it only adds insult to injury on top of UAE’s endorsement of East Turkestan’s concentration camps. It remains to be seen how far the UAE is willing to go in forgoing the causes of Muslims around the world.

]]>https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/uae-rolls-out-red-carpet-for-butcher-of-gujrat-modi/feed/047903Are Egypt’s coup authorities interrogating and deporting East Turkestan’s Uyghur Muslims?https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/are-egypts-coup-authorities-interrogating-and-deporting-chinas-uyghur-muslims/
https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/are-egypts-coup-authorities-interrogating-and-deporting-chinas-uyghur-muslims/#respondTue, 20 Aug 2019 19:45:00 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=47776"I was scared when I got there, it was dark, and I asked myself how we would get out of here. I was afraid we would be handed over to Chinese authorities,"

]]>Blindfolded and handcuffed, an Uyghur student of al-Azhar University in Cairo, Abdelmalek Abdel Aziz, found himself being questioned in Egypt by Chinese officials. In broad daylight, Abdel Aziz was remanded by coup authorities together with a group of his colleagues and taken to a police station, where Chinese officials interrogated his reasons for being in Egypt.

The three officials spoke to the student in Chinese and addressed him by his Chinese name rather than his Uyghur one. Abdel Aziz, 27, divulged details of the 2017 incident to the AFP news agency. He added that more than 90 Uyghur students of Islamic sciences, originally from China’s Muslim minority living in northwest China’s Xinjiang Province, were arrested.

Abdel Aziz added that Egyptian police told them that Chinese authorities had accused them of being ‘terrorists’, but that they clarified they were only students at al-Azhar.

China is one of Egypt’s biggest foreign investors and has poured enormous amounts of money into mega-infrastructure projects such as Egypt’s new administrative capital east of Cairo. Trade between the two countries hit a record $13.8 billion last year. Three weeks before the Egyptian security crackdown, Egypt’s coup head Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi signed a security memorandum with China focusing on “combating terrorism.”[1]

After rigorous interrogation that lasted a few days at a police station in Nasr City, one of Cairo’s affluent neighbourhoods, Abdel Aziz was sent to Tora Prison, one of Egypt’s most notorious maximum-security prisons. The prison, housing criminals and political prisoners, is given the moniker “the Scorpion.”

Tora Prison is known for the unspeakable torture and abuse that happens within its walls. It has been described as having “degrading conditions without beds, mattresses, or basic hygienic items … [prisoners are] humiliated, beaten, and confined for weeks in cramped ‘discipline’ cells.” Since 2013, Tora has emerged as a central prison for opponents of the coup, and has incarcerated tens of thousands for bogus ‘terrorism’ charges.[2] Abdel Aziz was released after 60 days in detention and fled to Turkey in October 2017.

Another Uyghur student, Shamsuddin Ahmed, tells the details of his arrest on July 4th 2017 outside the Musa ibn Nusayr mosque in the Nasr City district. Ahmed, 26, told AFP that his father went missing in Xinjiang in the same month: “I still don’t know if he is dead or alive.”

According to Ahmed, black vehicles with no license plates stopped in front of the mosque after the end of ‘Asr (evening) prayers, and several policemen emerged and arrested many worshipers. Ahmed was also transferred to the Tora prison complex.

“I was scared when I got there, it was dark, and I asked myself how we would get out of here. I was afraid we would be handed over to Chinese authorities,” he said.

Two weeks before their release, Uyghurs and other Chinese Muslims of different ethnic origins were divided into three groups. Each was given a certain colour: red for those marked to be deported to China, green for those to be released, and yellow for those to be asked further questions.[3] Inside the prison, Uyghur detainees were divided into two large groups, each containing 45-50 people, and then transferred to large cells for weeks.

Ahmed said that during his 11 days in police custody, three Chinese officials questioned him specifically about his father, requesting his whereabouts and how he sends him money. Ahmed was fortunate to be in the ‘green group’, and after his release fled to Istanbul where thousands of Uyghur Muslims have found a safe haven. Experts believe that the devastating impact of the 2017 campaign launched by the coup regime has reduced the size of the Uyghur society to just fifty families from about 6,000 people.[4]

According to human rights organisations, millions of Uyghurs (and other Muslim minorities mainly from the East Turkistan region) are being held in a vast network of concentration camps in China undergoing alleged political rehabilitation. Beijing says these “education centres” are necessary for countering religious extremism, but reports have emerged of physical and mental torture, children being forcibly separated from their parents, and many forced to denounce their religion and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party.[5]

]]>https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/are-egypts-coup-authorities-interrogating-and-deporting-chinas-uyghur-muslims/feed/047776Saudi Jeddah Fest: The Desperate Face of Liberalismhttps://www.islam21c.com/current-affairs/saudi-jeddah-fest-the-desperate-face-of-liberalism/
https://www.islam21c.com/current-affairs/saudi-jeddah-fest-the-desperate-face-of-liberalism/#commentsMon, 08 Jul 2019 17:03:30 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=46317"Those seeking to 'liberalise' the country have become neither stately custodians of Islām, nor paraders of the political systems of Liberalism. They sway between the two and belong to neither."

]]>The last couple of Ramaḍān days in 2018 coincided with the beginning of the World Cup in Sochi, Russia. Kicking off the tournament was the Saudi Arabian football team, who, along with its coaches and fans, was given the green light to break their fast, en masse. [1]

Besides the rightness or wrongness of eating for the sake of what would have, in a recent era, been regarded as a futile pastime, the stakes were set for a revitalised win. Awkwardly, they were crushed 5-0 by an unhopeful Russia, to which some on social media began sneering: “They neither ended up fasting with the believers nor playing like the disbelievers.”

Fast forward a year and we hear that a rapper, known for her “typically revealing outfits and explicit lyrics”, according to a BBC [2] reference I have chosen to omit, will perform at the Jeddah World Fest on 18th July. It is scheduled to be the largest live music festival in the heartland of Islām and will take place just 50 miles from the House of Allāh, the Kaʿbah, running into the sacred month of Dhul Ḥijjah when millions will visit the Sacred House, announcing, “we are here, Allāh, we are here.”

Though the fest’s organisers (at whatever political level) think they have done well in showcasing an aesthetic, liberal face, their cajoling the West is still failing in hugely embarrassing ways. The billions of dollars of petrol money have done little to bribe the West’s silence over the premeditated murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, war crimes committed in Yemen, and numerous human rights violations. Even with the moral and financial beg-friending, television exposés of gulf-ruling families that divulge seriously shameful revelations, on public BBC television, are becoming routine. [3]

“But Allāh is mocking them, and drawing them on, as they wander blindly in their excessive insolence.” [4]

Conversely, and quite ironically, the self-respecting advocates of philosophies are very different to those recognised in the West: those who are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia are still held in higher esteem, in the West and continue to be seen as ‘people of principle’ and victims of expression and personal conscience. [5][6]

In other words, much like the encounter with Russia, those seeking to ‘liberalise’ the country have become neither stately custodians of Islām, nor paraders of proper Western liberalism or its political systems, and thus, they sway between the two and belong to neither.

“[They, the hypocrites, are] swaying between this and that, belonging neither to these nor to those; and he whom Allāh sends astray, you will not find for him a way [to the truth – Islām].” [7]

Let us discuss this further. For starters, the Jeddah Fest misfits only got their ‘freedom’ to corrupt when they barred the liberty of others to speak out against them and incarcerated scholars and activists. To be honest, this is a general conundrum that all forms of muscular liberalism around the world suffer from: “You can do and say what you want, so long as you do and say what I want”.

These desperate displays of ‘liberty’ are thus clumsy because they are oxymoronic, built on repressing voices of reason and religiosity. Political Theorist Professor John Dunn, in fact, notes autocracy as a component of the antithesis of liberalism. [8]

Secondly, why is it that sexual promiscuity is always the only thing the Gulf brandishes when showcasing their path to ‘reform’? Seriously, which dullard decided that the path to civilizational reform must start with bikini beaches, [9] dozens of new cinemas, [10] and pop concerts? [11][12] Liberalists, at best, see these things as ‘entertainment’ after a busy day of civil service where such activities do not take place.

In fact, John Locke, the so-called ‘Founding Father of Liberalism’, outlines in his 1690’s foundational thoughts on a liberal society, the Two Treatises of Government, that legitimate governments are only those that have the consent of the people. Are we allowed to ask if this founding tenet of liberal political theory will be on the agenda of the Gulf’s drive to liberalism? [13] Will the ragdolls being used to showcase Saudi Arabia’s new ‘liberal’ face be demanding their democratic voice when electing a government, or just be photographs at ‘belote’ betting games for its gawky-named General Entertainment Authority? [14]

Thirdly, Western liberalism, for all its flaws, is supposed to be a vehicle, not an objective. Being a liberal does not automatically make you impressive, but rather, exercising your liberty to do good is what makes you good. In laymen’s terms, ‘pimping around’ at exposed festivals, even by liberal standards, makes you a playboy just as taking the liberty to overdrink makes you a drunkard.

The buffoons signing up to this gig are, in fact, being forcibly shaped into the exclusively sexual manifestation of ‘liberation’ that the facilitators recognise. Having been convinced ‘reform’ means inaugurating the filthy industry, they have become like national mannequins, leaving passers-by perplexed at why they are entirely undressed. By this, they are neither succeeding in following the ‘etiquettes of liberalism’ – if there ever were any – nor the virtues of their original identity as pure, honourable Muslims.

It is a shame and it wrenches the heart that the ‘Land of Tawḥīd’ and ‘Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries’ is allowing itself to head in this direction. This is not denying the colossal amount of scholarship, modesty, and virtue that remains. Muslims across the world, however, expect better representation from whom they have historically and naturally wanted to confer the custodianship of Islām to.

In a statement attributed to ʿAlī (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu), he says: “Truth is not known by men. Know the truth, you will know the men upon it.” No doubt with an honest knowledge of Islām, we will unsurprisingly look for alternative role-models.

Muslims in the West simply find no inspiration in godlessness and carnalism. They not only see these things everywhere but see that they have not done any favours to their proponents. If anything, Western non-Muslims admire Muslims for being able to serve the opposite. The two have failed to bring contentment to the West, let alone underpin ‘reform’ efforts in Muslim heartlands, chasing ends those that have reached them are running away from! But it is as Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) says:

“…If you turn away, He will replace you with a people other than yourselves and they will not be like you.” [15]

]]>There is no easy way to maul ‘Israel’ these days without facing the mincer. It should have been more straightforward. The Muslims got ‘ISIS’. It clearly was not a depiction of normative Islām and I trust nobody will call you an Islamophobe for slamming them. Likewise, it is not anti-Christian bigotry to condemn the Nazis.

Why is it different for Zionism? Is the amalgamation of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, in a way that leverages the legal privileges of the former on the latter, really helpful? In other words, should ‘Israel’, as a political entity, be given Semitic immunity or instead, earn the repudiation of the world’s Semitic community?

Let us take this piecemeal. Zionists, regardless of their religious persuasions, have by incontestable fact invaded Palestine. Putting aside the ‘promised land’ claim for just a moment, the ‘Israeli Declaration of Independence’ happened in May 1948, which is recent enough to be remembered.

Around one million native humans (regardless of their genetic composition) were forcibly displaced from their homes. Call them ‘Palestinians’, ‘Arabs’, ‘human beings’, ‘Canaanites’, ‘Jebusites’, ‘Philistine’s, or even ‘the biological synthesis of every dynasty, nation, or peoples (including ‘Semitic’ Israelites) for all intents and purposes. There were humans living there before the advent of ‘Israel.’ More than 78% of their land was confiscated, alongside its water resource, livestock, buildings, and fertile earth that later became the graveyard of those victims.

“How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.” [1]

What became known as ‘Israel’, created on the corps of that synthetic religious community, also became the world’s only nation given the privilege of justifying its invasion…religiously. They became ‘God’s chosen people’ for that land – a theatrical diversion of the real question. But who could argue with ‘God’s choice’? Precipitously, what began as a simple issue of the rightness or wrongness of land annexation became confounded with questions of organic originality…

The onus was not on how predominantly European Zionists forged a biological link with an African Moses or Babylonian Abraham for that matter. In fact, the onus of answering for genetic originality was thrown on the masses who lived there before 1948 since time immemorial.

Fast forwarding to the modern day, 46% of ‘Israeli’ Jews consider themselves secular, whilst 70% see themselves as God’s ‘chosen people.’ [2] Do the maths! The rounded claim is that God distinguished a growing godless community and sanctioned the forced displacement of a vastly religious and notably Abrahamic community.

Zionism’s history is blighted with massacres, the scale and recursive nature of which has become unfathomable. This says a lot about a 70-year-old nation state. During the shaping of Zionism under the auspices of the British Empire, dozens of British servicemen were killed. The 22nd July 1946 attack on the King David Hotel containing the British Administrative Headquarters was carried out by Zionist underground organisation the ‘Irgun’. Its directors became some of the most senior Zionist authorities, including Menachem Begin (the sixth Prime Minister of ‘Israel’).

The Deir Yassin massacre followed in 1948. A join contingent, containing the Tsel, Irgun, and Haganah, assaulted the 600-person village near Jerusalem. A cistern alone was found to contain 150 mutilating bodies and the full death toll remains unknown. Irgun leader Menachem Begin falsified the Red Cross’s reports, ironically labelling it the fabrication by anti-Semites. [3] Massacres at Qibya followed in 1953, then Khan Yunis in 1956, and then in the scarred Lebanese town of Sabra and Shatila, in which the organised ‘Israeli’ army itself supervised the silent mass execution of thousands of unarmed Palestinians over three consecutive days.

In the year 1990, thousands of settlers stormed the Masjid al-Aqsa compound trying to place a rock that was ostensibly a foundation stone for Solomon’s temple. Thousands of Palestinians assembled to ward off the group and were met with live ‘Israeli’ gunfire. More than 20 Palestinians were shot dead and hundreds fell injured. [4] Pools of blood on the sanctuary spread to almost 200 metres in length.

“Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” [5]

In February 1994, Baroukh Goldstein opened fire on a congregation of worshippers at the Masjid in Hebron in which Prophet Abraham (ʿalayhi al-Salām) is buried. The worshippers, face down in sujūd (prostration), were peppered with bullets. Soldiers stationed outside failed to intervene for 10 traumatic minutes despite calls for help. The Zionist fanatic could not have been speaking for Semitism:

“And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” [6]

The 2006 blitz on Lebanon that claimed more than a thousand civilians – followed by that on Gaza in 2008, 2012, and 2014 and claiming some 4000 civilians – further testify to this. Mere ‘occupation’ would have been unnecessary, according to the former ‘Israeli’ Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and a false protagonist of ‘Israel’s’ Jewishness, if had it dealt with its resistance as the US dealt with Japan. [7]

Is Criticising Illegality now…Illegal?

Censoring ‘Israel’ does not need to be embraced within the definition of anti-Semitism. It is a disservice to a law and concept that took decades of struggle to enshrine across the world. Put another way, if Zionism, sits ‘above the law’, it does not need to sit within the precincts of legal protection afforded to Semitism. Insisting on the equivalence of political Zionism and religious Semitism, in fact, denounces international law altogether, otherwise it is a legal paradox. In fact, religion is unequivocal to separating religious doctrine from the usages and applications of man, and the Zionism and Semitism equivalence renounces this basic concept.

Surely, “grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person”, as stated in Article 147 of the 1949 Geneva convention, [8] is not a Semitic virtue. Can ‘Israel’s’ proponents honestly vindicate ‘Israel’ from this? Reports suggest that women raising white flags were summarily executed during ‘Operation Cast Lead’. [9] The use of insidious white phosphorus and depleted uranium during the December 2008 assault on Gaza was at an unprecedented scale.

According to Article 27 of the 1949 Geneva Convention:

“Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape.”

Should the choke imposed on the Gaza strip be afforded legal protection?

“Daily food rations for internees shall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep internees in a good state of health and prevent the development of nutritional deficiencies. Account shall also be taken of the customary diet of the internees.” [10]

“Any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is an offence to human dignity and a fundamental violation of human rights… No State may permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” [11]

Recurrent sexual abuse, child molestation, prisoner humiliation, and physical and psychological abuse has been extensively documented by Palestinian non-governmental advocacy group, Addameer. [12] According to the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights, ‘Israel’ has imprisoned more than 600,000 Palestinians for a week or longer. [13] Reports suggest that prisoners are tied to chairs for hours, with music blasting out, pricked with needles and sacks are placed over their heads. However, according to Declaration of the Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power:

“Victims should be treated with compassion and respect for their dignity and are entitled to prompt redress for harm caused.” [14]

Affording Zionism legal immunity under the Semitic framework undermines our very understanding of Human Rights and justice. ‘Israel’ leads the world in snubbing UN resolutions. [15] It is a glaring legal enigma, even a travesty of justice to outlaw the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, specifically targeting illegal settlement produce, when, according to the International Court of Justice (2004) “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [… and] have been established in breach of international law”.[16]

Is Criticising Racism now…Racism?

Racism is grounded in almost every ‘Israeli’ institution. Arabs living within the 1948 territories are fundamentally denied nationality rights. The Law of Citizenship isolates non-Jews into a subordinate class and a wide range of national services are systematically provided to Zionist institutions, serving only Jews. [17] ‘Israeli’ Arabs are ridiculed at airports, suspended from various legislative and legal rights, and even banned from access to public amenities, including parks and attractions. [18]

In the 16 years of building the ‘separation wall’, the structure has penetrated up to 67 Palestinian villages, towns, and cities, affecting nearly quarter of a million Palestinians living in the West Bank. “Jerusalemites are separated from family members in the West Bank; ambulances and patients cannot reach hospitals; and babies are born in the street.” [20]

Arguably, conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, particularly if we can agree that anti-Semitism is distinctly racist and has bred hate-crime. Trying to protect ‘Israel’ under the precincts of ‘anti-Semitism’ laws in fact undermine the latter, exposing the two separate issues to equivalent denigration. People will simply not stop criticising ‘Israel’ because it stems from their disposition on moral justice. Just as Islamophobes should answer for today’s record levels of Islamophobic hate-crime because their equivalence of terrorism and Islām, those who peddle the Zionism, Semitism equivalence should be the ones made to answer for increasing anti-Jewish bigotry.

Morsi can be spotted with his arms raised in the air in solidarity with the besieged enclave, a sentiment that much of his short presidency from 2012 to 2013 had echoed.

President Mohamad Morsi is heard chanting:"I hear your cry Gaza"from his courtroom prison cell. Let us fulfil his dream and provide pure water for thousands in Gaza as a Sadaqah Jaariyah for him! Join the many who have supported the Morsi Gaza Water fund already! https://www.muslimgiving.org/mohammedmorsi

Muslims across the UK have come together to answer his call, setting up a continuous charity ‘Sadaqah Jāriyah’, dedicated to his soul, in hope that the People of Gaza can be provided water for life.

The initiative, launched by Islam21c at the auspices of Muslims in the UK, has climbed to around nearly £10,000 and has attracted dozens of donations. The fundraiser, set up in collaboration with Human Appeal, aims to give thousands of Gazans access to clean drinking water.

Why Sadaqah Jāriyah in Gaza

Morsi won Egypt’s Presidential Election in May 2012, with over 13 million votes. Just a few months into his presidency, in November of the same year, ‘Israel’ launched operation ‘Pillar of Defence’, landing hundreds of airstrikes and killing over 100 civilians.

But unlike previous escalations, Egypt took an unprecedented and decisive stance against the Zionist aggression. Morsi himself addressed crowds affirming, “we will not leave Gaza alone. The Egypt of today is very different to that of yesterday…”, referring to the escalation as a “heinous assault” and that if the Zionist war machine were to continue, it should prepare to face “the rage of the [Egyptian] people and its leadership.”

Only one week into the assault and ‘Israel’s’ aerial fleet was grounding, its 75,000 reservists withdrawn. Egypt’s pivotal role stifled ‘Israel’ from carrying out a massacre similar to that of 2008, but in a defiant show of courage and resolution to follow those words with action, Morsi dispatched a high political delegation, including then-Prime Minister, Hesham Qandil, whilst the airstrikes were still pounding the strip.

During the escalation, Morsi ordered the immediate withdrawal of Egypt’s ambassador to Tel Aviv and the streets of Cairo were throbbing with protests. What seemed to be leading towards an inevitable severance of historic diplomatic ties between Egypt and ‘Israel’ was crucial to thwarting the aggression. Immediately following the assault, Morsi demanded the unrestricted opening of the Rafah border crossing, allowing hundreds of humanitarian activists unhampered access. [1]

During Morsi’s incarceration, coup authorities, through their apathy or direct facilitation, would oversee ‘Operation Protective Edge’. The massacre would instead last seven weeks and claim the lives of the more than 2,200 civilians. The intensity of the war and the colossal damage resulting from the blitz was such that nearly 400,000 Gazan children required psychological support. [2]

Why ‘Water’?

In the aftermath of the 2014 war, nearly half a million Palestinians were unable to access municipal water due to destroyed infrastructure and low pressure. Sewage was freely discharging into people’s drinking water. By 2018, the economy was “in free fall”, drinking water was widely contaminated, and the healthcare system was on the verge of collapse causing the UN Special Rapporteur to conclude that Gaza has become “unliveable”. [3]

Gaza and the rest of Palestine Mourned Morsi’s Death

In what activists saw as validating the unmatched headway that Morsi’s administration provided the Palestinian cause, thousands of Gazans took to their streets and homes to mourn his death. Funeral prayers in absentia were conducted in almost all of Gaza’s masājid.

Masjid al-Aqsa in occupied East Jerusalem, furthermore, held prayers after ‘Isha on the day of Morsi’s passing away. [4] According to the spokesman for the Office for the Information of Prisoners, Ali al-Maghribi, even Palestinian prisoners in Zionist prisons conducted absentia funeral prayers. [5]

Let us fulfil his dream and provide pure water for thousands in Gaza as a Sadaqah Jāriyah for him, in shā’ Allāh! Join the many who have supported the Morsi Gaza Water fund already!

]]>https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/uk-muslim-community-responds-to-morsis-gaza-cry/feed/045568Mohamed Morsi: The final minutes of the unyielding presidenthttps://www.islam21c.com/news-views/mohamed-morsi-the-final-minutes-of-the-unyielding-president/
https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/mohamed-morsi-the-final-minutes-of-the-unyielding-president/#respondTue, 18 Jun 2019 11:06:51 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=45459The final moments of President Mohamed Morsi revealed: "O my people, even if you attack me, you are treasured. O my people, even if they hold rancour towards me, you are honoured."

]]>Several human rights organisations have begun calling for an international investigation in the death of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi after he collapsed in a court hearing on Tuesday afternoon. His final moments were outlined in a preliminary statement by the Executive Manager for the ‘Committee for Justice’, Ahmad Mufrih, in an interview with Aljazeera. [1][2]

“We are suspicious of the account provided by the (Egyptian) General Prosecution surrounding the death of Dr Mohamed Morsi since the prosecution has played a pivotal role in preventing him from treatment whilst in prison. They are thus not an impartial source with regards what surrounds his death…”

He added:

“The current political and regional situation makes us suspect in the likelihood of the security authorities in Egypt having deliberately murdered Dr Morsi.”

According to reports, Morsi was buried in the early hours of Tuesday. Only Morsi’s direct family and his lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, were allowed to attend the funeral, the latter adding that the janāzah (funeral prayer) was conducted over him at the ‘Turra’ Prison Hospital by only his family members. No media coverage of the funeral processions was permitted by the coup regime, nor were any of his supporters allowed to participate. Morsi was buried in Nasr City, in precisely the same burial ground as three former General Guides to the Muslim Brotherhood (raḥimahum Allāhu), including the previous General Guide, Mohamad Mahdi, who also died in detention. [3]

“We hope that my father, President Mohamed Morsi is a martyr with Allāh, and to Allāh all disputes will be resolved.” [4]

During the ‘court’ hearing

Eyewitnesses have noted that Morsi’s recent trials have seen an increased police and security force presence. According to Mufrih, recent days witnessed an increasing presence of aides to the Interior Ministry, as well as a large number of national security officers deployed throughout the halls and roads leading to the courtroom. Lawyers were thoroughly inspected and prevented from taking in their mobile phones or any electronic equipment that had previously been permitted.

The court hearing in which Morsi passed away started at 12:30 (Ẓuhr) local time. He requested that he be allowed to speak and was permitted. In his speech, he stressed that he had been prevented any medication and that he is facing premeditated death, adding that his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating and that he had repeatedly fainted in previous days without receiving any medical attention.

According to the same source, Morsi requested that he be allowed to meet his defence in order to deliver an amānah (trust) or will to the Egyptian people, but the court responded by turning off his voice transmitter in order to silence him.

During the hearing, Morsi said that he had evidence he would need to mention to a secret trial, seeing as mentioning them publicly may harm Egypt’s national security, adding:

“Until now, I cannot see what is happening in the court. I cannot see the lawyer, the media, nor the court. Even my defence will not have the evidence needed to defend me.”

He then recited the couplets:

“O my people, even if you attack me, you are treasured. And O my people, even if they hold rancour towards me, you are honoured.”

He passed out for half an hour without response.

According to Mufrih, Morsi passed out for up to 30 minutes inside his glass cell before receiving any medical attention, despite his colleagues shouting and imploring that someone come to his rescue. The Geneva-based advocacy group added:

“From the very moment he was set to reside in the Republican Guards’ headquarters on July 3rd, 2013, he was subjected to revenge procedures, held in secret detention, and isolation for four months and prevented from seeing his family.”

He later appeared at the Police Academy on the 4th November of the same year to face his first ‘trial’. Throughout the ‘trial’, Morsi was prevented from being able to converse with his defence due to the preventative glass cell he was placed in and was held in solitary confinement for three years in Cairo’s ‘Turra’ prison.

According to the source, Morsi was suffering from chronic diabetes as a result of the conditions his detention and denial of basic treatment, which led to serious medical complications, including severe weakness in his eyesight, damage to his mouth and teeth, and recurrent collapsing. This is in addition to a recurrence of hypoglycaemia and severe rheumatism in the spine and neck, as a result of forcing him to sleep on the hard ground. This is not to mention Morsi’s liver and kidney issues that had resulted from malnutrition and the prison authority’s failure to provide adequate clothing, toiletries, or any type of literature.

Mufrih added that his group has evidence to suggest that Egypt’s Interior Ministry, headed by Mahmoud Tawfiq, gave direct orders to prison authorities to not respond to the demands of any leader from the Muslim Brotherhood, despite them suffering from chronic illnesses, even if this be at their own financial expense.

During a ‘court’ hearing on the 17th June 2019, President Mohamed Morsi collapsed and returned to his Lord. Much of the Muslim world has carried out funeral prayers in absentia and have demanded that the international community bring Egypt’s coup authorities to swift account.

May Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) have mercy on President Mohamed Morsi and accept him as a martyr, granting him the highest abode in Jannat al-Firdous. Āmīn.

]]>https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/mohamed-morsi-the-final-minutes-of-the-unyielding-president/feed/045459President Morsi: “Our Brother, Our Martyr”https://www.islam21c.com/politics/president-morsi-our-brother-our-martyr/
https://www.islam21c.com/politics/president-morsi-our-brother-our-martyr/#commentsMon, 17 Jun 2019 20:12:34 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=45424The first and last elected President of Egypt, who answered the cries of Egypt's impoverished, Syria, and Palestine, returns to the Court of Justice, standing in the courts of tyranny. Raḥimahu Allāhu.

President Mohamed Morsi (raḥimahu Allāhu) was a President like none other: the first and last democratically elected in Egypt’s known history; A ḥāfiẓ of the Book of Allāh, the husband of a ḥāfiẓah and the father of five ḥufāẓ; [1] a leader, and a representative of the deep-rooted, profound Muslim Brotherhood organisation that emblematises decades of Islamic Scholarship, humanitarian work, and unparalleled political organisation. The group was Egypt’s unsung backbone, running 1000 Non-Governmental Organisations and developing intuitions for the poor and destitute.

With the participation of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood organised the masses and achieved Egypt’s most peaceful transition from a wedged military tyranny to Parliamentary Democracy. The rocket scientist by trade would go on to triumph in five consecutive elections: the 2011 constitutional referendum; the 2011 to 2012 People’s Assembly vote; the 2012 Upper House of Parliament, the 2012 Presidential Election; and the referendum on the new constitution.

Despite President Morsi ruling Egypt on the lowest paid salary for a President in the world himself, he managed to increase agricultural exports increased by 20%, he reduced the Central Bank’s deficit reduced by 45%, and he raised economic growth to 2.4%. [1] Amidst perpetual protests and targeted character assassination, his administration transformed Egypt into the much-desired civil state.

It was President Morsi who answered the cries of the Syrians, severing Egypt’s ties with the bloody regime and exclaiming to all hearers – “We hear your call, Syria” – and supported its revolution. [1] Who can forget when Morsi stifled ‘Israel’s’ war on Gaza in 2012 on-par another massacre, [1] withdrawing Egypt’s ambassador to the Zionist entity. Ask the 2300 people who were killed in Gaza in 2014, or the 10,000 wounded during what the coup regime did one year after Morsi was overthrown.

2013 saw one of history’s worst crackdowns on pro-democracy activists. President Morsi was deposed, and him, along with hundreds of leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood and thousands of activists were incarcerated and trialled under the most derisory accusations. The six-year-long trial swung between jail and death sentences whilst Morsi stood defiant, upright, and smart behind a glass window, but never conceding his position as Egypt’s highest authority.

Other than the 3000 of those who were killed parading in his support, a fraction of the 13.2 million who waited under the sun to cast their votes, tens of thousands of his supporters were detained under forged charges and scores were assassinated in the bloody military crackdown that continues today. Unfortunately, this was much to the silence of the international community that instead recognised the despot, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, inviting him to economic forums and prestigious dinners, and bolstering him with hundreds of billions of petrol money.

“It is not befitting for a leader to follow concessions… all praise is due to Allāh, I strived 15 years for martyrdom…[moments before his execution he said] this finger that declares the oneness of Allāh in ṣalāh refuses to write a letter in recognition of this tyrant’s authority.” [2]

During a ‘court’ hearing on the 17th of June, 2019, President Mohamed Morsi collapsed and returned to his lord. Morsi and his family indicated to the ‘court’ that there was an imminent danger to his life due to a prevailing medical condition towards the beginning of May. The ‘court’, however, ignored his pleas. [3]

Mohamed Morsi was an icon of patience and perseverance against oppression, tyranny and the thugs of injustice. He was an icon of struggle and daʿwah to Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) in his youth whilst in the United States. Having returned with intents to revolutionise Egypt’s ailing industry, he was battered by military pawns and pseudo regimes. [1] Morsi is, today, a martyr of injustice, and has returned to his Lord whilst standing in the face of tyranny:

“The leader of the martyrs is Hamzah b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and a man who stood up before a tyrant and enjoined good and forbade evil, and he killed him.”

The Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) informed us:

“Everyone will be raised in the condition in which he dies.”

President Morsi died whilst being trialled unjustly and will, by Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā)’s leave, be resurrected standing in front of the tyrants paid to level counterfeit accusations at him. His adversaries will not be able to go far. Who will be jeering then when the tables turn and they are the ones facing Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā)’s Court? Whilst President Morsi’s days in dark, dreary dungeons are replaced with everlasting palaces and gardens of delight, he will see his oppressors, maybe glimpse the once tyrant standing to hear the verdict in the Court of Allāh – “They will come forth, with humbled eyes…” [4] – the angels, the Prosecutors, his limbs, his witnesses, and Allāh the Judge. This is the final decree and the sweetest retribution.

The companion of the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam), Haram b. Milhān, only declared, “I have won by the Lord of the Kaʿbah,” after the spear was plunged into his body whilst on his journey to teach the Qur’ān. [4] The believer of Yā Sīn, ‘Ḥabīb al-Najjār’ saw nothing of a ‘worldly positive result’ but was promised Paradise at the instant he was martyred. [4] Today, Morsi (raḥimahu Allāhu) joins them.

“And do not think Allāh to be heedless of what the unjust do; He only respites them to a day on which the eyes shall be fixedly open.” [5]

]]>https://www.islam21c.com/politics/president-morsi-our-brother-our-martyr/feed/145424Three Important Things Turkish Elections Prove Every Timehttps://www.islam21c.com/politics/three-important-things-turkish-elections-prove-every-time/
https://www.islam21c.com/politics/three-important-things-turkish-elections-prove-every-time/#commentsSat, 06 Apr 2019 15:23:49 +0000https://www.islam21c.com/?p=42164While many of us in the UK only realise there’s a local election when rummaging through our take-away menus, Turkey’s local democracy teaches us all a lesson.

]]>On Sunday 31st of March, millions of Turks voted in Turkey’s local elections. In the contest for over 30 metropolitan and thousands of districts, provincial, and municipal councils, Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came out on top, Alhamdullillāh, and did so despite concerted smear campaigns and economic harassment. The AK Party took control of 56% of all Turkish municipalities. However, whilst every election comes with its own surprises, at least three consistencies appear in each without exception.

Many want to see the downfall of the AK Party, regardless of their replacement.

It is the 15th Turkish election and the AK Party pretty much dominated. Most Turks did not buy into the media’s economic horror tales, brandished an institutional “economic crisis”.[1] Fortunately for them, Trump, had been vocal about his administration’s aim to “devastate Turkey’s economy”.[2] The halfwit sloppily left no room for the Turks to suspect that their government, who had been re-elected 14 times already, was beginning to institutionally fail. They knew Turkey simply needed to weather just another thuggish Trumpism, now targeting its economy. True enough, it was a wipe-out win. The AK Party’s clear majority in the overall mayoral race was just 1.1% below their 2014 results, with its rival increasing their share by a meagre 0.6%.

Even in spite of the AK Party’s 14% dominance in the council elections, as well as having won in Ankara and Istanbul, you cannot help but be impressed by Western media’s frantic titles regarding the results: “Erdoğan has been chastened by the election results”[3]; “The beginning of the end for the Erdoğan era”[4]; “Erdoğan’s big Turkish ambitions could come tumbling down”[5]; “Is Turkish poll shock the beginning of the end for Erdoğan?”[6]; and other obsessively fanciful headings.

What catches the eye, perhaps more than the usual Islamophobic culprits, are those from the political left who yearn for the “beginning of the end for Erdoğan”.[7] Other than the typical Erdo-bashing, the article is written with a stark, celebratory tone for the wins of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP). It calls the leader of the former, “charismatic” and the latter, the ”veteran” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu “who survived endless AKP ridicule and intimidation.” [8] The article ignores the CHP’s campaign message protesting the AK Party’s spending on vulnerable Syrian Refugees[9], and even their partners’ promise to “send 4 million Syrian refugees back to Syria”[10] altogether.

Regrettably, it sometimes feels as if criticising the AK Party is the Western media’s united cause. Those who support the now anti-Syrian Refugee CHP will simultaneously lambast our own shameful response to the Syrian Refugee crisis,[11] whilst knowing that Turkey, under the AK Party, hosts the most Syrian refugees in the world and has spent around $35 billion dollars (£27 billion) helping and sheltering them.[12] This is approximately 2000 times more than what the UK government has dedicated to the Syrian Refugee Relocation Scheme.[13]

For them, if the election results mean the end of the AK Party, despite the transformational effect they have had on Turkey in the last 15 years, as well as their incalculable humanitarian support, then they will celebrate their successors, irrespective of their policies. However, Turkey’s President did not appear from an abyss. He originates from the Islamic AK Party, who happens to lead an Executive Body, a Parliament, and multiple councils and local leaders.

Fundamentally, they have all been elected by a nation who holds that Islamic inclination and persuasion. Attacking the AK Party will seldom change that reality. The media’s eagerness to see the “end of Erdoğan” may be just as eager to see an end to whoever picks up his reins. Though, judging by the country’s 620-year Islamic heritage which was spotted by very short spates of violent secularism, it may not be worth the trouble waiting.

Turkey is a seriously energetic, healthy and fair democracy.

Several analysts in the Guardian, the Middle East Eye and others are now emphatically making this point[14][15][16] despite it being one we made repeatedly, years ago, on Islam21c.[17]

Today, the insinuation seems to be that Turkey only became an admirable democracy when the elections dealt “a major setback for the president…and his ruling alliance.”[18] Many propagandists recently called Erdoğan a “dictator in all but name”,[19] and argued that the country’s now admirable democracy has paradoxically bred something of an absolutist regime. Despite the double-standard, this is a reason to be optimistic about these results. If nothing else, Turkish opponents can now officially see the nation as a democracy for the next time a party with Islamic tendencies wins a referendum or election.

It may be worth a reminder that it was the AK Party – i.e., the ‘Islamic’ party – who formed Turkey’s functional democracy to begin with, reassuring its electorate that the era of military coups ended with the July, 2016 fifth coup attempt. It is, thus, from a position of strength and decency that it opens the floor to candidates from all backgrounds and persuasions. Nothing of the like that was established by the post-Ataturk – ultra-secular goons who tussled over power and swam in financial corruption.[20]

As well as this, Turkey’s democracy is energetic. It is euphoric and engaging. People are rigorously connected with its candidates, and are fully engaged with their policies and personalities, as government advisor Yasin Aktay argues.[21] We forget that the nearly 85% of the voter turnout was for a local election, not a general one. Many of us in the UK only notice upcoming elections when rummaging through our takeaway menus! Local government elections in the UK see turnouts closer to 30%! How many of us can even name our Local Councillor? Statistically, the Turks are in fact more engaged with their Local Elections than us in our General Elections. There appears to be a lot of work we need to do in the UK before we can give lessons in democracy to Turkey, as implied by AK Party spokesman, Ömer Çelik:

“Dictatorships with no democratic track record or less than 10 percent voter turnout have no right to criticize Turkey’s elections.“[22]

The AK Party’s only realistic alternative is fatally secularist, and hugely detrimental.

You have seen it again and again. The party in first place is the AK Party, and in second place is the Kemalist, and regimentally secularist CHP, who have a history of outlawing Islamic practices (like the Hijab and Adhan) or any party that veered too close to Islam.

The AK Party may not resemble the idealistic recollection of Ottoman Turkey under the Khilāfah. Its pragmatism, or what supporters would call ‘realism’, is seen by many Muslims as ‘selling out’ on core Islamic principles. For the time being, let us address this with two points:

If you last booked an affordable package holiday to Turkey, can you honestly say it was not to one of the ‘red’ destinations—including Antalya, Izmir, Karaman, Istanbul—in the results map below?[23] Most of these resorts, maybe unsurprisingly, happen to be CHP hubs. After visiting these areas, many non-Turkish, Muslim critics of the AK Party will draw judgement on its secularity. In comparison to this, much of the north coast, governed by the AK Party, is frequented by conservative Muslims and has an utterly different atmosphere.

Some may ask that surely if the AK Party is in a position of power, can they not do more to urge an immediate application of all aspects of Islām or impose it? Even if we were to agree this is the ‘correct’ Islamic approach, irrespective of the existing secular climate in many areas, the AK Party may have never entered parliament, let alone govern. Down at sixth place is the Felicity Saadet Partisi Party, securing a tiny 2.7% share of the last vote.[24] Though the AK Party shares roots with the Felicity Party, the latter’s ‘all or nothing’ approach, vision and strategy has proved undeniably incompatible with present-day politics. The clear re-emergence of the CHP, and the current standing of the Felicity Party, after years of its existence, testify to this. In fact, if only a quarter of AK Party supporters were swayed by Erdo-bashers to the favour of what is deemed ‘the more Islamic’ alternative (the Felicity Party), we will have given Turkey back to the ultra-secularist Kemalists for sure.

Thus, it is imperative that Muslims look at Turkey from this lens. The AK Party’s model may not fit some Muslims’ utopian view of the Ottomans, nor will a holiday to Bodrum echo episodes of the DirilişErtuğrul television series. Turkey is, however, embarking on an extremely positive trajectory in the favour of Islām, one that has brought immense benefits to its citizens and the Muslim world. The polar opposite lurks like a ghost in second place, and this challenge will not simply be fixed overnight.